Art project:
SKIN DEEP

In a world full of images of how we “should” look, it can be difficult to accept how we DO look.

The human body (especially the female one) and the beauty of the shapes found within it have been central in this project. I am interested in exploring how we view ourselves and our bodies in a modern western culture context, and what we consider to be beautiful. I am especially interested in how media and social media has received criticism for the way it portrays human perfection and the negative effect it can have on people as well as how we distort and manipulate images of the human form in order to achieve perceived “perfection”.

With this project, I question and challenge the “ideal” beauty and explore the sociological and psychological effects that influence distorting the image of the body. I ask myself; what are we prepared to do to ourselves in order to change parts of our image we perceive to be imperfect? How far are we willing to go? What is beauty?

During the time of working on this project I have been influenced by contemporary fine artists, such as Bruce Nauman and his hands and heads sculptures as well as his performing pieces like “Shit In Your Hat – Head On A Chair”. Fashion photographer Guy Bourdin and the way he photographed legs in different contortions have also been a source of inspiration. These artists motivated me to use casts of different parts of my own body and placing them in strange, unnatural positions as an attempt to challenge the idea of ideal beauty. 

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Year: 2012